Scorching a Fire Lily
by CountFrankenstein
Summary: Don't judge me, because honestly I am nothing like you could possibly imagine. Yes I do consider myself unique, because I am the first of my kind, and as you can tell I am way to into myself, but I have plenty of reasons why I should be. Whatever you'll learn why when you read my story. It's truly unbelievable. I've learned a lot from my journeys with the Avatar.


The town is bustling with people, and I appreciate the fact I am just another face in the crowd. In any other town a woman who sits alone in a tea shop viewing the people that pass by would draw attention to herself. Odd really, that the ones who are silent are the ones to draw attention to themselves. Luckily I have learned to blend in with the shadows and make myself unseen to the observant. Of course I don't have to do such a thing here. Everyone is content focusing on themselves and their own problems, which is perfectly fine by me. The people here are average, nothing too special, occasionally you will get a bender here or there, but they are just merely passing through. That's another reason I like this town, if the fire nation came stomping around then they wouldn't expect anyone special to be sitting in a tea shop hiding in the open. As I marvel on about how great this petty town is, three odd characters stumble into my domain. The first one to catch my eye is the young man; he is the one closest to me. He and a young woman are both wearing water tribe clothing. He must be her older brother, for they share the same skin tone, eyes, and chin. Then there is a younger boy who sticks out like a sore thumb. He is wearing odd clothing that I have never seen before and has strange tattoos amongst his head and arms.  
"Will you calm down Sokka. We lost them yesterday and I doubt they could be following us." The girl says.  
"Yeah Katara's right. Stop being such a worry wart." The younger boy smiles, he then turns his attention to the display of tea and food. "I'm starving!" he chimes as he runs to the sales desk. He licks his lips staring at the meat stew then the rolls then the rice and so on.  
"I don't know. Zhao is pretty persistent."Sokka says scratching his head. I tense up almost immediately the tea cup I am holding in my hands shakes a bit. I set it back on the table and try to relax. I go into my usual routine to remove any stress. I focus on my breath and only my breath, everything in the past and future dissipates, and very slowly I regain myself. Now I come back to reality and am fine. Zhao isn't coming, these people lost him yesterday. Now the question is what he wanted with them. By now they are at the table behind me enjoying their meal not acknowledging me whatsoever.  
"-the Winter Solstice is coming up in twelve days and we have to get-" the boy was cut off by an explosion.  
"You've got to be kidding me." I mutter. I get up and swing on my cloak in one swift movement and dash out of the shop. Unfortunately I am not the only on light footed, and the boy runs into me.  
"Oh sorry!" he says. He then shakes the staff he is holding and it sprouts wings and he takes off into the air. I am shocked and in disbelief, this kid just flew out into the sky, but I have no time to ponder for a fire ball crashes against some shopping carts and people are running and screaming trying to protect themselves. Fire benders come crashing into the streets setting anything they want on fire. Katara and Sokka rush out of the building and try to put out the fires. Katara uses water bending to put out the big fires whilst Sokka uses any object he can find to bat against small fires, which evidently make them worse. I have no time to help them with such a stupid task and prefer to ditch the safest town I had known. I dash off into a small alley that would lead me into the wilderness. The alley has yet to be filled fire or fire benders so it is the safest route I have at the current moment. Yet with my luck there just so happens to be a battle going on right in front of my way out. The alley branches out into a large opening with many houses; I only need to get past this opening and I will be free. It's even better that the battle just so happens to be between the kid and General Zhao's army.  
"Great…." I sigh. If it was not for the adrenaline pumping through my veins my nerves would get the best of me. I swiftly climb on the wall to my right and get on the roof of the building. I am unspotted until I become foolish and stare at the unbelievable sight. The kid is using air to fight against fire.  
"He's an air bender?" I ask myself in disbelief. His two other companions join the fight and use their abilities to help him, though Sokka really doesn't have impressive abilities, solely a boomerang. I stand there watching the fight progress. It's twelve against three, completely unfair, but when is the fire nation ever fair. I don't know who spotted me nor why they would be looking at the sky, but I was too stupid to realize there was fire being hurled at my chest fast enough. I didn't get hit of course, I'm far better than that even with my mistake, but I did lose my footing and fall off. I know it sounds stupid, but that that moment it was stupid, so don't judge me for this silly mistake. I get up from my embarrassing fall and am ready to run, but am surround by some reinforcements. They obviously don't know who I am yet or else they would be running for their lives right about now, but lucky for them I prefer to let them keep their ignorance. Even though I am only giving them half of my attention, the other half going towards where Zhao is and where I can ditch these losers, I am still a worthy competitor. They use fire to attack me. I dodge their attacks and reply with a kick to the face. Their armor is much too thick for me to punch and I have no weapons on hand so I must use the only advantage I have over them, my light footedness that hurts like hell when it collides with a face. Of course I am not as perfect t as I like to believe I am. I occasionally get burnt here or there, and or I will get hit with the blade of a sword. More and more fire benders are closing in on me and very slowly I am being merged with the other three. Before I know it we are all surrounded, if it was not for Katara's water bubble shield combined with the kids air shield around us we would more than likely be dead. The fighting abruptly stops. The kid and Katara keep their shields up, but other than that there is no bending. Everything is silent besides the rushing of water and wind. The soldiers split into two groups and create a walkway for a person a dread to be reunited with. Zhao comes into view riding on a Komodo Rhino. Without warning the animal charges towards us and we all jump out of the way. The kid and I collide into each other when we jump upwards whilst the other two cohesively jump to the left. The air bender and I both fall back where we stood, and of course he landed much more gracefully than I. The soldiers close in on both of our groups when Zhao gets off of his Komodo Rhino.  
"Ah look what we have here. I've been looking for you." Zhao says with a mischievous smile. I only stare at the ground hoping he is talking to the air bender and not me. I contemplate on whether I should try to slip past the wall of soldiers, which is seemingly impossible, or if I should stay put. In the end, I believe staying put might be the best option maybe Zhao will just over look me. Seeing an air bender might do that for people.  
"Seems as if I have the fire nation's greatest enemies in my power. How lucky is that?" Zhao says slowly enjoying every sound that gushes out of his disgusting mouth.  
"Aang's the avatar, you can't possibly capture him." Katara says. I can't help myself look at the kid. Avatar. Surely it can't be true. But it must, he is an air bender. It's amazing. I am standing right next to the avatar! The last air bender! Why didn't I see it before? He's the freaking avatar. He has so much power, why is he just wasting it away by just standing there. He could blow everything up, including Zhao, no especially Zhao.  
"Shut up you filth." Zhao spits.  
"I thought you just called her one of the fire nation's greatest enemy?" Sokka says grabbing his boomerang, which was quickly taken away from him by soldiers. Zhao just stares at him for a moment; there is a flint of confusion then amusement.  
"You thought I was talking about you two?" Zhao chuckles which makes Sokka turn red and myself try to shrink and disappear. I don't really care anymore because he already knows I am here so I take a deep breath and prepare to fight. I turn around quickly and grab both the fire bender's heads and bash them together. I jump and throw myself forward, my hands still on their head which brings me into a handstand which lands me on my feet. I jab both my elbows into the closest soldiers' ribs, it is extremely painful for me and I probably broke or fractured my elbows. I ignore the pulsing pain traveling throughout my upper limbs and try to break through the next set of soldiers, which leads to failure. Before I know it there is a burning in my back that is truly all too familiar. I can literally feel the moisture drain from my back and the skin char. I let out a yelp and fall on my knees rather hard. The soldiers back up, while I am crouched in front of them rather pathetically. Being burned is really something different. It isn't like when you are cut with a blade and your wound stings, but if you hold the wound tightly the pain lessens, nor is it like being hit with a blunt object and you get the air knocked out of you and your bones ache. It's a mixture of the worst of both. It brings a hot stinging sensation to your body that is not nice and it makes your skin ache, but you can't touch the wound unless you want to feel the thunderous shock of surging heat, so I just crouch there on all fours trying to breathe long slow breaths and calm my body.  
"You brought this on yourself you know." Zhao says while he walks towards me.  
"Shut up." I wheeze. He just laughs mirthlessly he is now standing over me and he thinks it would be a lovely idea to flip me over. When my back hits the ground I can't help but let out another pitiful cry. I shut my mouth quickly when I realize how pathetic I look. I can feel my skin scabbing over the open flesh with dirt and rocks permanently etching into my charred muscles, and I know I am expressing the pain on my face.  
"You can be pretty pathetic at times." He says with a snarl. Without thinking I grab his ankle and release all the pain and heat I feel in my back. He releases a grunt in pain in response.  
"Don't touch me." Zhao kicks my side probably bruising me. With that act I then feel a gush of air where Zhao was standing and hear a fight begin. I look around and see Aang jumping on the heads of fire benders coming towards me. Katara and Sokka are close behind him fighting anyone who gets in their path. I didn't think they would make it until a giant flying bison crushes plenty of fire benders when he lands. His roar is tremendous and knocks down a few more soldiers, which gives Sokka and Katara time to climb on his back and onto his saddle. Aang, being the honorable Avatar he is decided he was going to help me.  
"Are you fine if I pick you up?" he asks  
"Sure." I say trying to not act so pathetically, I don't want to seem weak in front of the avatar. He laces his arm around my upper back, careful not to graze my burn and jumps onto the animal I thought was extinct. Without warning the animal takes off into the sky and I can hear the roar of an angry fire nation General. I can't help but to smile.


End file.
